Author: Tim O'Brian
# of Pages: 237
Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Why This Book has Value: The Things They carried is a book depicting a platoon of soldiers and their experience in the Vietnam War. The book describes the graphic and violent life of ground infantry men. O'Brian focuses his story toward the weight that each soldier carries. He provides the exact weight of each item the platoon must "hump" each day. One of the most important aspects of the novel is how brutally real it was. Throughout the novel, you believe every word that O'Brian says. But, as all good books, there is a twist; the book is all a lie. This kind of sudden realization had profound effects on me. It made me realize how differently we read fiction vs non-fiction. I believe that O'Brian know of this difference, and attempted to show it to you. His book, if read completely as fiction, would not have had the same effect on me. I could have read through it hearing all of the terrible things and take it as a grain of salt. The Things They Carried is important to read solely because of the realization it gives you. All fiction books have a real life moral, and I believe knowing that the story never happened takes away from the moral. Reading this book provides priceless opportunities of gaining insight, and the book only weighs about fifteen ounces.
Nice description.
ReplyDelete